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<a href="http://pugixml.org/">pugixml 1.5</a> manual |
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		Document:
		<b>Object model</b> &middot; <a href="loading.html">Loading</a> &middot; <a href="access.html">Accessing</a> &middot; <a href="modify.html">Modifying</a> &middot; <a href="saving.html">Saving</a> |
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<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="manual.dom"></a><a class="link" href="dom.html" title="Document object model"> Document object model</a>
</h2></div></div></div>
<div class="toc"><dl class="toc">
<dt><span class="section"><a href="dom.html#manual.dom.tree"> Tree structure</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="dom.html#manual.dom.cpp"> C++ interface</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="dom.html#manual.dom.unicode"> Unicode interface</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="dom.html#manual.dom.thread"> Thread-safety guarantees</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="dom.html#manual.dom.exception"> Exception guarantees</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="dom.html#manual.dom.memory"> Memory management</a></span></dt>
<dd><dl>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="dom.html#manual.dom.memory.custom"> Custom memory allocation/deallocation
        functions</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="dom.html#manual.dom.memory.tuning"> Memory consumption tuning</a></span></dt>
<dt><span class="section"><a href="dom.html#manual.dom.memory.internals"> Document memory management
        internals</a></span></dt>
</dl></dd>
</dl></div>
<p>
      pugixml stores XML data in DOM-like way: the entire XML document (both document
      structure and element data) is stored in memory as a tree. The tree can be
      loaded from a character stream (file, string, C++ I/O stream), then traversed
      with the special API or XPath expressions. The whole tree is mutable: both
      node structure and node/attribute data can be changed at any time. Finally,
      the result of document transformations can be saved to a character stream (file,
      C++ I/O stream or custom transport).
    </p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="manual.dom.tree"></a><a class="link" href="dom.html#manual.dom.tree" title="Tree structure"> Tree structure</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
        The XML document is represented with a tree data structure. The root of the
        tree is the document itself, which corresponds to C++ type <a class="link" href="dom.html#xml_document">xml_document</a>.
        Document has one or more child nodes, which correspond to C++ type <a class="link" href="dom.html#xml_node">xml_node</a>. Nodes have different types; depending
        on a type, a node can have a collection of child nodes, a collection of attributes,
        which correspond to C++ type <a class="link" href="dom.html#xml_attribute">xml_attribute</a>,
        and some additional data (i.e. name).
      </p>
<a name="xml_node_type"></a><p>
        The tree nodes can be of one of the following types (which together form
        the enumeration <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node_type</span></code>):
      </p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
            Document node (<a name="node_document"></a><code class="literal">node_document</code>) - this
            is the root of the tree, which consists of several child nodes. This
            node corresponds to <a class="link" href="dom.html#xml_document">xml_document</a>
            class; note that <a class="link" href="dom.html#xml_document">xml_document</a> is
            a sub-class of <a class="link" href="dom.html#xml_node">xml_node</a>, so the entire
            node interface is also available. However, document node is special in
            several ways, which are covered below. There can be only one document
            node in the tree; document node does not have any XML representation.
            <br><br>

          </li>
<li class="listitem">
            Element/tag node (<a name="node_element"></a><code class="literal">node_element</code>) - this
            is the most common type of node, which represents XML elements. Element
            nodes have a name, a collection of attributes and a collection of child
            nodes (both of which may be empty). The attribute is a simple name/value
            pair. The example XML representation of element nodes is as follows:
          </li>
</ul></div>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">node</span> <span class="identifier">attr</span><span class="special">=</span><span class="string">"value"</span><span class="special">&gt;&lt;</span><span class="identifier">child</span><span class="special">/&gt;&lt;/</span><span class="identifier">node</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>
</pre>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
          There are two element nodes here: one has name <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"node"</span></code>,
          single attribute <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"attr"</span></code>
          and single child <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"child"</span></code>,
          another has name <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"child"</span></code>
          and does not have any attributes or child nodes.
        </p></blockquote></div>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem">
            Plain character data nodes (<a name="node_pcdata"></a><code class="literal">node_pcdata</code>)
            represent plain text in XML. PCDATA nodes have a value, but do not have
            a name or children/attributes. Note that <span class="bold"><strong>plain
            character data is not a part of the element node but instead has its
            own node</strong></span>; an element node can have several child PCDATA nodes.
            The example XML representation of text nodes is as follows:
          </li></ul></div>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">node</span><span class="special">&gt;</span> <span class="identifier">text1</span> <span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">child</span><span class="special">/&gt;</span> <span class="identifier">text2</span> <span class="special">&lt;/</span><span class="identifier">node</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>
</pre>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
          Here <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"node"</span></code> element
          has three children, two of which are PCDATA nodes with values <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">" text1 "</span></code> and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"
          text2 "</span></code>.
        </p></blockquote></div>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem">
            Character data nodes (<a name="node_cdata"></a><code class="literal">node_cdata</code>) represent
            text in XML that is quoted in a special way. CDATA nodes do not differ
            from PCDATA nodes except in XML representation - the above text example
            looks like this with CDATA:
          </li></ul></div>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">node</span><span class="special">&gt;</span> <span class="special">&lt;![</span><span class="identifier">CDATA</span><span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">text1</span><span class="special">]]&gt;</span> <span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">child</span><span class="special">/&gt;</span> <span class="special">&lt;![</span><span class="identifier">CDATA</span><span class="special">[[</span><span class="identifier">text2</span><span class="special">]]&gt;</span> <span class="special">&lt;/</span><span class="identifier">node</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>
</pre>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
          CDATA nodes make it easy to include non-escaped &lt;, &amp; and &gt; characters
          in plain text. CDATA value can not contain the character sequence ]]&gt;,
          since it is used to determine the end of node contents.
        </p></blockquote></div>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem">
            Comment nodes (<a name="node_comment"></a><code class="literal">node_comment</code>) represent
            comments in XML. Comment nodes have a value, but do not have a name or
            children/attributes. The example XML representation of a comment node
            is as follows:
          </li></ul></div>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">&lt;!--</span> <span class="identifier">comment</span> <span class="identifier">text</span> <span class="special">--&gt;</span>
</pre>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
          Here the comment node has value <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"comment
          text"</span></code>. By default comment nodes are treated as non-essential
          part of XML markup and are not loaded during XML parsing. You can override
          this behavior with <a class="link" href="loading.html#parse_comments">parse_comments</a>
          flag.
        </p></blockquote></div>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem">
            Processing instruction node (<a name="node_pi"></a><code class="literal">node_pi</code>) represent
            processing instructions (PI) in XML. PI nodes have a name and an optional
            value, but do not have children/attributes. The example XML representation
            of a PI node is as follows:
          </li></ul></div>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">&lt;?</span><span class="identifier">name</span> <span class="identifier">value</span><span class="special">?&gt;</span>
</pre>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
          Here the name (also called PI target) is <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"name"</span></code>,
          and the value is <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"value"</span></code>.
          By default PI nodes are treated as non-essential part of XML markup and
          are not loaded during XML parsing. You can override this behavior with
          <a class="link" href="loading.html#parse_pi">parse_pi</a> flag.
        </p></blockquote></div>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem">
            Declaration node (<a name="node_declaration"></a><code class="literal">node_declaration</code>)
            represents document declarations in XML. Declaration nodes have a name
            (<code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"xml"</span></code>) and an
            optional collection of attributes, but do not have value or children.
            There can be only one declaration node in a document; moreover, it should
            be the topmost node (its parent should be the document). The example
            XML representation of a declaration node is as follows:
          </li></ul></div>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">&lt;?</span><span class="identifier">xml</span> <span class="identifier">version</span><span class="special">=</span><span class="string">"1.0"</span><span class="special">?&gt;</span>
</pre>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
          Here the node has name <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"xml"</span></code>
          and a single attribute with name <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"version"</span></code>
          and value <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"1.0"</span></code>.
          By default declaration nodes are treated as non-essential part of XML markup
          and are not loaded during XML parsing. You can override this behavior with
          <a class="link" href="loading.html#parse_declaration">parse_declaration</a> flag. Also,
          by default a dummy declaration is output when XML document is saved unless
          there is already a declaration in the document; you can disable this with
          <a class="link" href="saving.html#format_no_declaration">format_no_declaration</a> flag.
        </p></blockquote></div>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem">
            Document type declaration node (<a name="node_doctype"></a><code class="literal">node_doctype</code>)
            represents document type declarations in XML. Document type declaration
            nodes have a value, which corresponds to the entire document type contents;
            no additional nodes are created for inner elements like <code class="computeroutput"><span class="special">&lt;!</span><span class="identifier">ENTITY</span><span class="special">&gt;</span></code>. There can be only one document type
            declaration node in a document; moreover, it should be the topmost node
            (its parent should be the document). The example XML representation of
            a document type declaration node is as follows:
          </li></ul></div>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="special">&lt;!</span><span class="identifier">DOCTYPE</span> <span class="identifier">greeting</span> <span class="special">[</span> <span class="special">&lt;!</span><span class="identifier">ELEMENT</span> <span class="identifier">greeting</span> <span class="special">(</span><span class="preprocessor">#PCDATA</span><span class="special">)&gt;</span> <span class="special">]&gt;</span>
</pre>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
          Here the node has value <code class="computeroutput"><span class="string">"greeting [ &lt;!ELEMENT
          greeting (#PCDATA)&gt; ]"</span></code>. By default document type
          declaration nodes are treated as non-essential part of XML markup and are
          not loaded during XML parsing. You can override this behavior with <a class="link" href="loading.html#parse_doctype">parse_doctype</a> flag.
        </p></blockquote></div>
<p>
        Finally, here is a complete example of XML document and the corresponding
        tree representation (<a href="../samples/tree.xml" target="_top">samples/tree.xml</a>):
      </p>
<div class="informaltable"><table class="table">
<colgroup>
<col>
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody><tr>
<td>
                <p>
                  
</p>
<pre xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" class="table-programlisting"><span class="special">&lt;?</span><span class="identifier">xml</span> <span class="identifier">version</span><span class="special">=</span><span class="string">"1.0"</span><span class="special">?&gt;</span>
<span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">mesh</span> <span class="identifier">name</span><span class="special">=</span><span class="string">"mesh_root"</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>
    <span class="special">&lt;!--</span> <span class="identifier">here</span> <span class="identifier">is</span> <span class="identifier">a</span> <span class="identifier">mesh</span> <span class="identifier">node</span> <span class="special">--&gt;</span>
    <span class="identifier">some</span> <span class="identifier">text</span>
    <span class="special">&lt;![</span><span class="identifier">CDATA</span><span class="special">[</span><span class="identifier">someothertext</span><span class="special">]]&gt;</span>
    <span class="identifier">some</span> <span class="identifier">more</span> <span class="identifier">text</span>
    <span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">node</span> <span class="identifier">attr1</span><span class="special">=</span><span class="string">"value1"</span> <span class="identifier">attr2</span><span class="special">=</span><span class="string">"value2"</span> <span class="special">/&gt;</span>
    <span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">node</span> <span class="identifier">attr1</span><span class="special">=</span><span class="string">"value2"</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>
        <span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="identifier">innernode</span><span class="special">/&gt;</span>
    <span class="special">&lt;/</span><span class="identifier">node</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>
<span class="special">&lt;/</span><span class="identifier">mesh</span><span class="special">&gt;</span>
<span class="special">&lt;?</span><span class="identifier">include</span> <span class="identifier">somedata</span><span class="special">?&gt;</span>
</pre>
<p>
                </p>
              </td>
<td>
                <p>
                  <a href="../images/dom_tree.png" target="_top"><span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src="../images/dom_tree_thumb.png" alt="dom_tree_thumb"></span></a>
                </p>
              </td>
</tr></tbody>
</table></div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="manual.dom.cpp"></a><a class="link" href="dom.html#manual.dom.cpp" title="C++ interface"> C++ interface</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
          All pugixml classes and functions are located in the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">pugi</span></code>
          namespace; you have to either use explicit name qualification (i.e. <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>), or to gain access to relevant
          symbols via <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">using</span></code> directive
          (i.e. <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">using</span> <span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">xml_node</span><span class="special">;</span></code> or <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">using</span>
          <span class="keyword">namespace</span> <span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">;</span></code>). The namespace will be omitted from all
          declarations in this documentation hereafter; all code examples will use
          fully qualified names.
        </p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>
        Despite the fact that there are several node types, there are only three
        C++ classes representing the tree (<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_document</span></code>,
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_attribute</span></code>);
        some operations on <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>
        are only valid for certain node types. The classes are described below.
      </p>
<a name="xml_document"></a><a name="xml_document::document_element"></a><p>
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_document</span></code> is the owner
        of the entire document structure; it is a non-copyable class. The interface
        of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_document</span></code> consists
        of loading functions (see <a class="xref" href="loading.html" title="Loading document"> Loading document</a>), saving functions (see <a class="xref" href="saving.html" title="Saving document"> Saving document</a>)
        and the entire interface of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>,
        which allows for document inspection and/or modification. Note that while
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_document</span></code> is a sub-class
        of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code> is not a polymorphic type; the
        inheritance is present only to simplify usage. Alternatively you can use
        the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">document_element</span></code> function
        to get the element node that's the immediate child of the document.
      </p>
<a name="xml_document::ctor"></a><a name="xml_document::dtor"></a><a name="xml_document::reset"></a><p>
        Default constructor of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_document</span></code>
        initializes the document to the tree with only a root node (document node).
        You can then populate it with data using either tree modification functions
        or loading functions; all loading functions destroy the previous tree with
        all occupied memory, which puts existing node/attribute handles for this
        document to invalid state. If you want to destroy the previous tree, you
        can use the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_document</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">reset</span></code>
        function; it destroys the tree and replaces it with either an empty one or
        a copy of the specified document. Destructor of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_document</span></code>
        also destroys the tree, thus the lifetime of the document object should exceed
        the lifetimes of any node/attribute handles that point to the tree.
      </p>
<div class="caution"><table border="0" summary="Caution">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Caution]" src="../images/caution.png"></td>
<th align="left">Caution</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
          While technically node/attribute handles can be alive when the tree they're
          referring to is destroyed, calling any member function for these handles
          results in undefined behavior. Thus it is recommended to make sure that
          the document is destroyed only after all references to its nodes/attributes
          are destroyed.
        </p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<a name="xml_node"></a><a name="xml_node::type"></a><p>
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code> is the handle to
        document node; it can point to any node in the document, including the document
        node itself. There is a common interface for nodes of all types; the actual
        <a class="link" href="dom.html#xml_node_type">node type</a> can be queried via the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">type</span><span class="special">()</span></code>
        method. Note that <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>
        is only a handle to the actual node, not the node itself - you can have several
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code> handles pointing
        to the same underlying object. Destroying <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>
        handle does not destroy the node and does not remove it from the tree. The
        size of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code> is equal
        to that of a pointer, so it is nothing more than a lightweight wrapper around
        a pointer; you can safely pass or return <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>
        objects by value without additional overhead.
      </p>
<a name="node_null"></a><p>
        There is a special value of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>
        type, known as null node or empty node (such nodes have type <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">node_null</span></code>). It does not correspond to any
        node in any document, and thus resembles null pointer. However, all operations
        are defined on empty nodes; generally the operations don't do anything and
        return empty nodes/attributes or empty strings as their result (see documentation
        for specific functions for more detailed information). This is useful for
        chaining calls; i.e. you can get the grandparent of a node like so: <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">node</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">parent</span><span class="special">().</span><span class="identifier">parent</span><span class="special">()</span></code>; if a node is a null node or it does not
        have a parent, the first <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">parent</span><span class="special">()</span></code> call returns null node; the second <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">parent</span><span class="special">()</span></code>
        call then also returns null node, which makes error handling easier.
      </p>
<a name="xml_attribute"></a><p>
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_attribute</span></code> is the handle
        to an XML attribute; it has the same semantics as <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>,
        i.e. there can be several <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_attribute</span></code>
        handles pointing to the same underlying object and there is a special null
        attribute value, which propagates to function results.
      </p>
<a name="xml_attribute::ctor"></a><a name="xml_node::ctor"></a><p>
        Both <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code> and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_attribute</span></code> have the default constructor
        which initializes them to null objects.
      </p>
<a name="xml_attribute::comparison"></a><a name="xml_node::comparison"></a><p>
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code> and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_attribute</span></code> try to behave like pointers,
        that is, they can be compared with other objects of the same type, making
        it possible to use them as keys in associative containers. All handles to
        the same underlying object are equal, and any two handles to different underlying
        objects are not equal. Null handles only compare as equal to themselves.
        The result of relational comparison can not be reliably determined from the
        order of nodes in file or in any other way. Do not use relational comparison
        operators except for search optimization (i.e. associative container keys).
      </p>
<a name="xml_attribute::hash_value"></a><a name="xml_node::hash_value"></a><p>
        If you want to use <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>
        or <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_attribute</span></code> objects
        as keys in hash-based associative containers, you can use the <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">hash_value</span></code> member functions. They return
        the hash values that are guaranteed to be the same for all handles to the
        same underlying object. The hash value for null handles is 0.
      </p>
<a name="xml_attribute::unspecified_bool_type"></a><a name="xml_node::unspecified_bool_type"></a><a name="xml_attribute::empty"></a><a name="xml_node::empty"></a><p>
        Finally handles can be implicitly cast to boolean-like objects, so that you
        can test if the node/attribute is empty with the following code: <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">if</span> <span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">node</span><span class="special">)</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="special">...</span>
        <span class="special">}</span></code> or <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">if</span>
        <span class="special">(!</span><span class="identifier">node</span><span class="special">)</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="special">...</span>
        <span class="special">}</span> <span class="keyword">else</span> <span class="special">{</span> <span class="special">...</span> <span class="special">}</span></code>.
        Alternatively you can check if a given <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_node</span></code>/<code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">xml_attribute</span></code> handle is null by calling
        the following methods:
      </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">bool</span> <span class="identifier">xml_attribute</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">empty</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="keyword">const</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="keyword">bool</span> <span class="identifier">xml_node</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">empty</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="keyword">const</span><span class="special">;</span>
</pre>
<p>
        Nodes and attributes do not exist without a document tree, so you can't create
        them without adding them to some document. Once underlying node/attribute
        objects are destroyed, the handles to those objects become invalid. While
        this means that destruction of the entire tree invalidates all node/attribute
        handles, it also means that destroying a subtree (by calling <a class="link" href="modify.html#xml_node::remove_child">xml_node::remove_child</a>)
        or removing an attribute invalidates the corresponding handles. There is
        no way to check handle validity; you have to ensure correctness through external
        mechanisms.
      </p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="manual.dom.unicode"></a><a class="link" href="dom.html#manual.dom.unicode" title="Unicode interface"> Unicode interface</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
        There are two choices of interface and internal representation when configuring
        pugixml: you can either choose the UTF-8 (also called char) interface or
        UTF-16/32 (also called wchar_t) one. The choice is controlled via <a class="link" href="install.html#PUGIXML_WCHAR_MODE">PUGIXML_WCHAR_MODE</a>
        define; you can set it via <code class="filename">pugiconfig.hpp</code> or via preprocessor options, as
        discussed in <a class="xref" href="install.html#manual.install.building.config" title="Additional configuration options"> Additional configuration
        options</a>. If this define is set, the wchar_t
        interface is used; otherwise (by default) the char interface is used. The
        exact wide character encoding is assumed to be either UTF-16 or UTF-32 and
        is determined based on the size of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">wchar_t</span></code>
        type.
      </p>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><p>
          If the size of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">wchar_t</span></code> is
          2, pugixml assumes UTF-16 encoding instead of UCS-2, which means that some
          characters are represented as two code points.
        </p></td></tr>
</table></div>
<p>
        All tree functions that work with strings work with either C-style null terminated
        strings or STL strings of the selected character type. For example, node
        name accessors look like this in char mode:
      </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">const</span> <span class="keyword">char</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="identifier">xml_node</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">name</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="keyword">const</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="keyword">bool</span> <span class="identifier">xml_node</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">set_name</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="keyword">const</span> <span class="keyword">char</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="identifier">value</span><span class="special">);</span>
</pre>
<p>
        and like this in wchar_t mode:
      </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">const</span> <span class="keyword">wchar_t</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="identifier">xml_node</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">name</span><span class="special">()</span> <span class="keyword">const</span><span class="special">;</span>
<span class="keyword">bool</span> <span class="identifier">xml_node</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">set_name</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="keyword">const</span> <span class="keyword">wchar_t</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="identifier">value</span><span class="special">);</span>
</pre>
<a name="char_t"></a><a name="string_t"></a><p>
        There is a special type, <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">char_t</span></code>,
        that is defined as the character type and depends on the library configuration;
        it will be also used in the documentation hereafter. There is also a type
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">string_t</span></code>, which is defined as the STL string
        of the character type; it corresponds to <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">string</span></code>
        in char mode and to <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">wstring</span></code> in wchar_t mode.
      </p>
<p>
        In addition to the interface, the internal implementation changes to store
        XML data as <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">char_t</span></code>; this means that these two modes
        have different memory usage characteristics. The conversion to <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">char_t</span></code> upon document loading and from
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">char_t</span></code> upon document saving happen automatically,
        which also carries minor performance penalty. The general advice however
        is to select the character mode based on usage scenario, i.e. if UTF-8 is
        inconvenient to process and most of your XML data is non-ASCII, wchar_t mode
        is probably a better choice.
      </p>
<a name="as_utf8"></a><a name="as_wide"></a><p>
        There are cases when you'll have to convert string data between UTF-8 and
        wchar_t encodings; the following helper functions are provided for such purposes:
      </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">string</span> <span class="identifier">as_utf8</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="keyword">const</span> <span class="keyword">wchar_t</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="identifier">str</span><span class="special">);</span>
<span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">wstring</span> <span class="identifier">as_wide</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="keyword">const</span> <span class="keyword">char</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="identifier">str</span><span class="special">);</span>
</pre>
<p>
        Both functions accept a null-terminated string as an argument <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">str</span></code>, and return the converted string.
        <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">as_utf8</span></code> performs conversion
        from UTF-16/32 to UTF-8; <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">as_wide</span></code>
        performs conversion from UTF-8 to UTF-16/32. Invalid UTF sequences are silently
        discarded upon conversion. <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">str</span></code>
        has to be a valid string; passing null pointer results in undefined behavior.
        There are also two overloads with the same semantics which accept a string
        as an argument:
      </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">string</span> <span class="identifier">as_utf8</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="keyword">const</span> <span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">wstring</span><span class="special">&amp;</span> <span class="identifier">str</span><span class="special">);</span>
<span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">wstring</span> <span class="identifier">as_wide</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="keyword">const</span> <span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">string</span><span class="special">&amp;</span> <span class="identifier">str</span><span class="special">);</span>
</pre>
<div class="note"><table border="0" summary="Note">
<tr>
<td rowspan="2" align="center" valign="top" width="25"><img alt="[Note]" src="../images/note.png"></td>
<th align="left">Note</th>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left" valign="top">
<p>
          Most examples in this documentation assume char interface and therefore
          will not compile with <a class="link" href="install.html#PUGIXML_WCHAR_MODE">PUGIXML_WCHAR_MODE</a>.
          This is done to simplify the documentation; usually the only changes you'll
          have to make is to pass <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">wchar_t</span></code>
          string literals, i.e. instead of
        </p>
<p>
          <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">xml_node</span> <span class="identifier">node</span>
          <span class="special">=</span> <span class="identifier">doc</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">child</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="string">"bookstore"</span><span class="special">).</span><span class="identifier">find_child_by_attribute</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="string">"book"</span><span class="special">,</span> <span class="string">"id"</span><span class="special">,</span> <span class="string">"12345"</span><span class="special">);</span></code>
        </p>
<p>
          you'll have to do
        </p>
<p>
          <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">xml_node</span> <span class="identifier">node</span>
          <span class="special">=</span> <span class="identifier">doc</span><span class="special">.</span><span class="identifier">child</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">L</span><span class="string">"bookstore"</span><span class="special">).</span><span class="identifier">find_child_by_attribute</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">L</span><span class="string">"book"</span><span class="special">,</span> <span class="identifier">L</span><span class="string">"id"</span><span class="special">,</span> <span class="identifier">L</span><span class="string">"12345"</span><span class="special">);</span></code>
        </p>
</td></tr>
</table></div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="manual.dom.thread"></a><a class="link" href="dom.html#manual.dom.thread" title="Thread-safety guarantees"> Thread-safety guarantees</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
        Almost all functions in pugixml have the following thread-safety guarantees:
      </p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
            it is safe to call free (non-member) functions from multiple threads
          </li>
<li class="listitem">
            it is safe to perform concurrent read-only accesses to the same tree
            (all constant member functions do not modify the tree)
          </li>
<li class="listitem">
            it is safe to perform concurrent read/write accesses, if there is only
            one read or write access to the single tree at a time
          </li>
</ul></div>
<p>
        Concurrent modification and traversing of a single tree requires synchronization,
        for example via reader-writer lock. Modification includes altering document
        structure and altering individual node/attribute data, i.e. changing names/values.
      </p>
<p>
        The only exception is <a class="link" href="dom.html#set_memory_management_functions">set_memory_management_functions</a>;
        it modifies global variables and as such is not thread-safe. Its usage policy
        has more restrictions, see <a class="xref" href="dom.html#manual.dom.memory.custom" title="Custom memory allocation/deallocation functions"> Custom memory allocation/deallocation
        functions</a>.
      </p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="manual.dom.exception"></a><a class="link" href="dom.html#manual.dom.exception" title="Exception guarantees"> Exception guarantees</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
        With the exception of XPath, pugixml itself does not throw any exceptions.
        Additionally, most pugixml functions have a no-throw exception guarantee.
      </p>
<p>
        This is not applicable to functions that operate on STL strings or IOstreams;
        such functions have either strong guarantee (functions that operate on strings)
        or basic guarantee (functions that operate on streams). Also functions that
        call user-defined callbacks (i.e. <a class="link" href="access.html#xml_node::traverse">xml_node::traverse</a>
        or <a class="link" href="access.html#xml_node::find_node">xml_node::find_node</a>) do not
        provide any exception guarantees beyond the ones provided by the callback.
      </p>
<p>
        If exception handling is not disabled with <a class="link" href="install.html#PUGIXML_NO_EXCEPTIONS">PUGIXML_NO_EXCEPTIONS</a>
        define, XPath functions may throw <a class="link" href="xpath.html#xpath_exception">xpath_exception</a>
        on parsing errors; also, XPath functions may throw <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">bad_alloc</span></code>
        in low memory conditions. Still, XPath functions provide strong exception
        guarantee.
      </p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">
<a name="manual.dom.memory"></a><a class="link" href="dom.html#manual.dom.memory" title="Memory management"> Memory management</a>
</h3></div></div></div>
<p>
        pugixml requests the memory needed for document storage in big chunks, and
        allocates document data inside those chunks. This section discusses replacing
        functions used for chunk allocation and internal memory management implementation.
      </p>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title">
<a name="manual.dom.memory.custom"></a><a class="link" href="dom.html#manual.dom.memory.custom" title="Custom memory allocation/deallocation functions"> Custom memory allocation/deallocation
        functions</a>
</h4></div></div></div>
<a name="allocation_function"></a><a name="deallocation_function"></a><p>
          All memory for tree structure, tree data and XPath objects is allocated
          via globally specified functions, which default to malloc/free. You can
          set your own allocation functions with set_memory_management function.
          The function interfaces are the same as that of malloc/free:
        </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">typedef</span> <span class="keyword">void</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="special">(*</span><span class="identifier">allocation_function</span><span class="special">)(</span><span class="identifier">size_t</span> <span class="identifier">size</span><span class="special">);</span>
<span class="keyword">typedef</span> <span class="keyword">void</span> <span class="special">(*</span><span class="identifier">deallocation_function</span><span class="special">)(</span><span class="keyword">void</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="identifier">ptr</span><span class="special">);</span>
</pre>
<a name="set_memory_management_functions"></a><a name="get_memory_allocation_function"></a><a name="get_memory_deallocation_function"></a><p>
          You can use the following accessor functions to change or get current memory
          management functions:
        </p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">void</span> <span class="identifier">set_memory_management_functions</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">allocation_function</span> <span class="identifier">allocate</span><span class="special">,</span> <span class="identifier">deallocation_function</span> <span class="identifier">deallocate</span><span class="special">);</span>
<span class="identifier">allocation_function</span> <span class="identifier">get_memory_allocation_function</span><span class="special">();</span>
<span class="identifier">deallocation_function</span> <span class="identifier">get_memory_deallocation_function</span><span class="special">();</span>
</pre>
<p>
          Allocation function is called with the size (in bytes) as an argument and
          should return a pointer to a memory block with alignment that is suitable
          for storage of primitive types (usually a maximum of <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">void</span><span class="special">*</span></code> and <code class="computeroutput"><span class="keyword">double</span></code>
          types alignment is sufficient) and size that is greater than or equal to
          the requested one. If the allocation fails, the function has to return
          null pointer (throwing an exception from allocation function results in
          undefined behavior).
        </p>
<p>
          Deallocation function is called with the pointer that was returned by some
          call to allocation function; it is never called with a null pointer. If
          memory management functions are not thread-safe, library thread safety
          is not guaranteed.
        </p>
<p>
          This is a simple example of custom memory management (<a href="../samples/custom_memory_management.cpp" target="_top">samples/custom_memory_management.cpp</a>):
        </p>
<p>
          
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="keyword">void</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="identifier">custom_allocate</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">size_t</span> <span class="identifier">size</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="special">{</span>
    <span class="keyword">return</span> <span class="keyword">new</span> <span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">std</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">nothrow</span><span class="special">)</span> <span class="keyword">char</span><span class="special">[</span><span class="identifier">size</span><span class="special">];</span>
<span class="special">}</span>

<span class="keyword">void</span> <span class="identifier">custom_deallocate</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="keyword">void</span><span class="special">*</span> <span class="identifier">ptr</span><span class="special">)</span>
<span class="special">{</span>
    <span class="keyword">delete</span><span class="special">[]</span> <span class="keyword">static_cast</span><span class="special">&lt;</span><span class="keyword">char</span><span class="special">*&gt;(</span><span class="identifier">ptr</span><span class="special">);</span>
<span class="special">}</span>
</pre>
<p>
        </p>
<p>
          
</p>
<pre class="programlisting"><span class="identifier">pugi</span><span class="special">::</span><span class="identifier">set_memory_management_functions</span><span class="special">(</span><span class="identifier">custom_allocate</span><span class="special">,</span> <span class="identifier">custom_deallocate</span><span class="special">);</span>
</pre>
<p>
        </p>
<p>
          When setting new memory management functions, care must be taken to make
          sure that there are no live pugixml objects. Otherwise when the objects
          are destroyed, the new deallocation function will be called with the memory
          obtained by the old allocation function, resulting in undefined behavior.
        </p>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title">
<a name="manual.dom.memory.tuning"></a><a class="link" href="dom.html#manual.dom.memory.tuning" title="Memory consumption tuning"> Memory consumption tuning</a>
</h4></div></div></div>
<p>
          There are several important buffering optimizations in pugixml that rely
          on predefined constants. These constants have default values that were
          tuned for common usage patterns; for some applications, changing these
          constants might improve memory consumption or increase performance. Changing
          these constants is not recommended unless their default values result in
          visible problems.
        </p>
<p>
          These constants can be tuned via configuration defines, as discussed in
          <a class="xref" href="install.html#manual.install.building.config" title="Additional configuration options"> Additional configuration
        options</a>; it is recommended to set them in <code class="filename">pugiconfig.hpp</code>.
        </p>
<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; ">
<li class="listitem">
              <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">PUGIXML_MEMORY_PAGE_SIZE</span></code>
              controls the page size for document memory allocation. Memory for node/attribute
              objects is allocated in pages of the specified size. The default size
              is 32 Kb; for some applications the size is too large (i.e. embedded
              systems with little heap space or applications that keep lots of XML
              documents in memory). A minimum size of 1 Kb is recommended. <br><br>

            </li>
<li class="listitem">
              <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">PUGIXML_MEMORY_OUTPUT_STACK</span></code>
              controls the cumulative stack space required to output the node. Any
              output operation (i.e. saving a subtree to file) uses an internal buffering
              scheme for performance reasons. The default size is 10 Kb; if you're
              using node output from threads with little stack space, decreasing
              this value can prevent stack overflows. A minimum size of 1 Kb is recommended.
              <br><br>

            </li>
<li class="listitem">
              <code class="computeroutput"><span class="identifier">PUGIXML_MEMORY_XPATH_PAGE_SIZE</span></code>
              controls the page size for XPath memory allocation. Memory for XPath
              query objects as well as internal memory for XPath evaluation is allocated
              in pages of the specified size. The default size is 4 Kb; if you have
              a lot of resident XPath query objects, you might need to decrease the
              size to improve memory consumption. A minimum size of 256 bytes is
              recommended.
            </li>
</ul></div>
</div>
<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title">
<a name="manual.dom.memory.internals"></a><a class="link" href="dom.html#manual.dom.memory.internals" title="Document memory management internals"> Document memory management
        internals</a>
</h4></div></div></div>
<p>
          Constructing a document object using the default constructor does not result
          in any allocations; document node is stored inside the <a class="link" href="dom.html#xml_document">xml_document</a>
          object.
        </p>
<p>
          When the document is loaded from file/buffer, unless an inplace loading
          function is used (see <a class="xref" href="loading.html#manual.loading.memory" title="Loading document from memory"> Loading document from memory</a>), a complete copy of character
          stream is made; all names/values of nodes and attributes are allocated
          in this buffer. This buffer is allocated via a single large allocation
          and is only freed when document memory is reclaimed (i.e. if the <a class="link" href="dom.html#xml_document">xml_document</a> object is destroyed or if another
          document is loaded in the same object). Also when loading from file or
          stream, an additional large allocation may be performed if encoding conversion
          is required; a temporary buffer is allocated, and it is freed before load
          function returns.
        </p>
<p>
          All additional memory, such as memory for document structure (node/attribute
          objects) and memory for node/attribute names/values is allocated in pages
          on the order of 32 kilobytes; actual objects are allocated inside the pages
          using a memory management scheme optimized for fast allocation/deallocation
          of many small objects. Because of the scheme specifics, the pages are only
          destroyed if all objects inside them are destroyed; also, generally destroying
          an object does not mean that subsequent object creation will reuse the
          same memory. This means that it is possible to devise a usage scheme which
          will lead to higher memory usage than expected; one example is adding a
          lot of nodes, and them removing all even numbered ones; not a single page
          is reclaimed in the process. However this is an example specifically crafted
          to produce unsatisfying behavior; in all practical usage scenarios the
          memory consumption is less than that of a general-purpose allocator because
          allocation meta-data is very small in size.
        </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr>
<td align="left"></td>
<td align="right"><div class="copyright-footer">Copyright &#169; 2014 Arseny Kapoulkine<p>
        Distributed under the MIT License
      </p>
</div></td>
</tr></table>
<hr>
<table width="100%"><tr>
<td>
<a href="http://pugixml.org/">pugixml 1.5</a> manual |
		<a href="../manual.html">Overview</a> |
		<a href="install.html">Installation</a> |
		Document:
		<b>Object model</b> &middot; <a href="loading.html">Loading</a> &middot; <a href="access.html">Accessing</a> &middot; <a href="modify.html">Modifying</a> &middot; <a href="saving.html">Saving</a> |
		<a href="xpath.html">XPath</a> |
		<a href="apiref.html">API Reference</a> |
		<a href="toc.html">Table of Contents</a>
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